Spark
by Montanasky4
Summary: Following the events of Red Queen.
1. Captive

**Cal**

The undertrain, as the others call it, comes to a stop. With my hands still tied in front of me, Kilorn and another member of the Scarlet Guard escort me from the car onto a platform like the one under the arena. We are still underground from what I can tell.

"Take him to one of the holding rooms," commands Farley.

I start at the sound of her voice; the order she just gave refers to me.

"Cal!"

I squeeze my eyes shut. I don't want to see Mare right now. There's nothing she can do, nothing I want her to do or say.

"What are you waiting for?"

Kilorn's hand tightens around my arm in response.

"Come on, let's go," he says more to his comrade holding my other arm than to me.

"Cal! Kil! Wait a moment. Just let me talk to him."

 _You've done enough_ , I want to say but I don't. However, I can't seem to look away this time. I turn to see Mare pushing her way towards me and Shade, her brother, tugging her arm to pull her back.

It's the last I see of her before I'm thrown into a small square room and the metal door slammed shut behind me. I hear the bolt slide home on the other side, locking me inside. It's dark, only a small window in the door lets in the little light there is coming from the hall. The room smells old and the air is moist and stale.

Mare went from rags to riches. And now I went from being the Crown Prince to a traitor and a captive of my own doing. _Why didn't I run?_ I know the answer. I just don't care anymore.


	2. Inquisition

**Kilorn**

After locking the fallen prince in the holding room, I search for Mare. It doesn't take me long to find her; it's her first time here so I know there's only one place she can be. I make my way to the living quarters the Barrow family has been assigned. They refused to be split up, so they are all crammed into one room.

I can hear Mare's voice from the hallway.

"Are you sure it's safe? Maven was with me the last time we met up with the Scarlet Guard. He knows about the tunnels and the radiation detectors."

I'm close to the doorway when I hear Shade's response.

"This isn't the same location. Once things went south with you at the bridge, Farley came back to warn everyone. We were able to get out of there pretty quickly. After we got you and the prince out of the arena, the tunnels were bombed. It'll take months for the Silvers to dig their way though, even if they have several people who can manipulate earth and rubble."

What information Shade has just shared with Mare should provide her with relief but it only seems to make her more anxious.

"Have you been with the Guard this whole time?"

I stand in the doorway now, facing Mare's back. She's short enough that I see Shade tense at her question.

He hesitates and I know it's enough of an answer for Mare before he finally musters his response.

"I returned to the Guard shortly after the Silvers tried to assassinate me."

There's a hitch in Mare's speech. "It wasn't a coincidence that Farley met me, was it?"

"Don't raise your voice to your brother." Mare's mother warns.

By now Mare is close to hysterics. "Did Mom and Dad know you were alive? Bree and Tramy? Gisa? Did they know you were alive and with the Guard when I went to visit them?"

Daniel Barrow, Mare's father, wheels his chair in attempt to get in between his two children. The other members of the Barrow family look on in shock.

"Mare," says their father, "what your brother did, the secrets he kept, it was all to keep us safe, you safe."

She ignores him, instead her hands are in fists at her sides. She's practically yelling. "I joined the Guard because of what I thought happened to you. I joined the Guard to avenge you and it was a lie. I betrayed _them_ for a lie."

I know it is a family moment and I'm intruding but it will keep going and it will only get worse. Someone has to draw her attention from Shade and it might as well be me. "There seems to be a lot of that going around lately: secrets, lies, and betrayal."

Mare starts at my voice. I must have really caught her off guard because her fists are suddenly surrounded by sparks, bolts of purple and white electricity.

I am very aware of her attention on me and her deadly hands.

"Did you know?" She scrutinizes me. I regret speaking up. Then again, I spent some time being on Mare's bad side, a little more won't kill me.

It's a quick and simply gesture, but my nod of response is all that is needed to send Mare from the room. She's careful not to touch me as she moves passed me, leaving me with the rest of the Barrow family to stare at me.


	3. Forward

**Mare**

I don't know this place so I don't know where I am going when I flee the room. I need to be as far away from my family as I can get within the confines of the unknown Scarlet Guard underground building.

My fists are still surrounded with bolts of electricity and the lights overhead blink in and out as I pass them. There's only one person here who I think to go to—he's helped me calm my abilities before—but he's allowed himself to be locked up.

The more I think on it, the more I realize I am mad at Cal, too.

 _He will never choose me._

But most of his choices have been taken away from him. That's the only reason he helped me, protected me. He wouldn't betray his father and his crown for me. Maven was wrong; now I realize Maven manipulated me to believing that Cal felt that way to achieve his own ends. I am suddenly reminded of Cal words in the Bowl of the Bones.

 _I almost chose you this morning_.

He only said that after his father and his crown were taken from him. He has nothing left. His only chance of survival is with us—Reds. Oh, how the tables have turned.

One of the lights overhead becomes so bright. There is a whining sound that hurts my ears. I want it to stop, for all of it to stop. Suddenly the light bursts, raining glass down on me. I have enough sense to raise my arms above my head. A few pieces of glass cut me, drawing red blood. I welcome the pain. Anything is better than what I feel.

Guilt. Loss. Heartache. Rage.

They are just words—words that hold so much emotion, I am overwhelmed by it.

I thought I was using others. I thought I was winning. But I was used and betrayed. I dared to hope and to trust. I should have listened to the warnings.

Giving up on trying to navigate this maze, I find a dark corner and draw my legs up and lean my forehead on them. Finally the tears come. It's all I can do, now.

It feels like I've been sitting here in solace for hours. In truth, I have no way of knowing how much time has passed.

I remain still, not even looking up as I hear a pair of footsteps approaching. There is shuffling as the person interrupting my solitude sits down next to me.

"You've done enough sulking, Mare. It's about time you come back. Ma and Gisa are worried."

That's a first, I think. I want to laugh. Shade is the last person I want coming to get me. How can I feel so many things about one person in less than one day? Overwhelming joy and love to distrust and anger. I'm on the verge of an emotional overload that is even more than when I realized Maven's betrayal.

"Go away."

There is a beat of silence and I begin to think he'll do just that.

"I'm sorry, Mare. I'm sorry you had to believe I was killed. I should've found a way to tell you sooner but with the way things happened it might be the one thing in our favor."

I look up, resting my chin on my knees. It takes a while for me to speak.

"And what's that?"

I feel Shade's eyes on me, regarding me. He's not sure how his response will make me react. I watch his body tense next to me.

"King Mave doesn't know I'm alive. He doesn't know what I can do. And if we find the others on that list you gave Farley, who knows what more of an advantage we will have. Right now we need to keep this location hidden while we regroup and find them before Maven does."

I say nothing. Although I thought the same way only hours ago, the shock has faded and reality is setting in. I'm afraid to hope, to believe we actually have a chance. I had too much stock in the plans before. Before Maven showed his true colors—his mother's colors. _He is his mother's son_. King Tiberias the Sixth is dead. Maven is king. Cal...Cal is a kingslayer and a traitor in the eyes of all of Norta. I have betrayed two boys. One who I thought I loved and loved me in return and the other who I misunderstood and continues to care for me despite me manipulating him. For a time I thought my worst quality was that I was a thief. But now I know that I am a terrible person.

"Mare?" I refuse to look at him. I can't bring myself to. "You have to look passed that bad stuff that has happened. Look at all the positives. We can only go forward from here."

I turn to look at Shade. "Do you have an ability to read minds too?"

He shakes his head. "I don't need an ability like that to know what my sister is thinking."

I half smile. Shade has a point though. I have my family back. Shade is alive. Kilorn is alive and safe—albeit not as safe as I'd intended, but as safe as any of us are at this point. Cal doesn't outright hate me...I think.

"There's another reason I came to find you, Mare."

As much as I want to remember our conversation a few minutes ago, this sounds foreboding and I don't like it.

"Farley and some others are in a meeting, deciding what to do with the traitor prince." My back straightens at the mention of Cal. "I thought you should know, to have a chance to speak on his behalf. You're the only one who knows what really happened."

Cal and I—we're the only ones apart from Maven and the queen who know the truth. Despite however Maven has spun his web of lies to implicate us, we know who Maven really is, what he really is—a monster. It is up to us to bring him down.

"What can I do?" I ask.

He holds out his hand to me. "I'll help you." I take his proffered hand.


	4. Solemn

**Cal**

My eyes pop open at the sound of the bolt opening on the outside of the door to the room I am being kept. It shouldn't phase me anymore—someone comes in on regular intervals to bring me food and water and to retrieve the waste bucket they've afforded me. A part of me still hopes that when I open my eyes next it will all have been a terrible dream, a nightmare. I should put out that fire—that hope—before it has a chance to ignite.

The hinges of the door creak as someone enters but I don't bother to look to see who it is. I am more than content to continue laying on my back and wallowing in my self pity. Footsteps of someone approaching me cause the concrete floor beneath me to vibrate, giving me a headache but I refuse to move to sit up.

The footsteps stop a foot or so from my head. I hear the scrape of metal on concrete as my food tray is pushed along the floor.

"I was told you weren't eating but I didn't think you were that stupid. Mare will be disappointed in you."

I don't turn to the voice. All I can manage is to scoff at Shade's words.

"I care little of what Mare thinks."

"That's not what the rest of my family seems to think. According to them, you were the one who gave Mare the job at the palace, protected her when her abilities were exposed, brought her back to see her family—"

"That was before... before she used me. Her betrayal led to me being forced to kill my own father and my little brother crowned king."

Shade ignores me. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself—the arena broadcast: the dancing, the kiss. And you fought with her, protected her. You didn't have to do that. You chose to."

"Despite what the country thinks of me now, I can be a nice guy."

"So don't you dare tell me that you don't care about my sister. She betrayed you and people died. Well, guess what? People died on our side too. Silvers and Reds. That doesn't give you the right to be so selfish. You have a chance to change the world now. That different world you once imagined isn't so far out of reach now. So get off your high horse and eat!"

He kicks the tray over to me. When I don't move, he shakes his head, muttering a slur for Silvers under his breath. Shade slams the door closed and pushes the bolt into place with necessary force.

I stare at the food tray. As much as I don't want to admit it, Shade is right. My arm is numb with lack of use, in fact it takes great effort to pull the tray towards me. When the first bit of food touches my tongue, I realize I am ravenous.

What is it about me that makes me listen to Reds? Why do I care? I am silver-blooded. A prince. I would have been king. They shouldn't effect me so much. But they do. I've cared for as long as I can remember. I dreamed about a different world—a world in which the color of our blood did not divide us—long before I met Mare Barrow. I just wasn't ready to sacrifice certain things. My pride for one; my father was big on pride. My comforts have always been something I was willing to give up. I refuse to lose. But what the sacrifice I was least willing to accept was to go against my father, against my colors. Now, my father is gone. Maven and his snake of a mother took care of that—made me take care of that. I lost. Lost my title and my crown. I lost my home. I have no more pride. What's standing in my way?

Not a damn thing.

I eat every morsel on the tray. And when I'm finished I bang on the door repeatedly until someone comes. This bolt slides out of place and a member of the Scarlet Guard holds a gun and points it at me.

"What do you want?"

"Mare. Mare Barrow."


End file.
